A Study On The Effects Of Teacher's Written Feedback On Junior High School Students' Writing Accuracy

Under the implementation of New Curriculum Standard Reform(2011),the importance of writing in English instruction has been recognized by more and more teachers.With the extensive use of process writing approach in second language instruction,teacher's written feedback becomes a crucial part of English writing instruction.Many empirical studies have explored the effects of teacher's written feedback on learners' writing,but there are relatively scarce studies which have investigated the effects of teacher's written feedback on junior high school students'writing accuracy.Thus,based on Noticing Hypothesis and Comprehensible Output Hypothesis,the present study aims to answer three questions:(1)Does teacher's written feedback have a positive effect on the English writing accuracy of junior high school students?(2)What is the difference of the effects on junior high school students'English writing accuracy between direct written feedback and indirect written feedback?(3)What are junior high school students' responses and attitudes toward direct written feedback and indirect written feedback?90 students from three parallel classes in grade eight of Lihu Experimental School of Shenzhen University Town were the research subjects.Based on the results of pre-test,30 students from each class were selected as the research subjects of this study.The researcher divided them into three groups which had the same writing accuracy level.One group was randomly chosen as the control group(Control group),while the other two groups were selected as direct feedback group(group DF)and indirect feedback group(group IF)respectively.The teacher gave a general score on every composition.What's more,group DF received direct written feedback,and group IF received indirect written feedback.Control group didn't receive any written corrective feedback.The experiment used a pre-test-treatment-post-test design over 12 weeks.During the treatment,students were required to finish a writing task and to rewrite their compositions based on corresponding feedback every other week.Moreover,the researcher conducted a questionnaire survey and an interview between two experimental groups,which aims to investigate student's responses and attitudes toward direct written feedback and indirect written feedback.The results of this study are as follows:(1)Teacher's written feedback has a positive effect on junior high school students'English writing accuracy;(2)Direct written feedback has a more significant effect than indirect written feedback on improving junior high school students'English writing accuracy;(3)Most of the students positively responded teacher' written feedback and considered it important for them to receive teacher's written feedback on their compositions.And students were more willing to receive direct written feedback compared with indirect written feedback.This study contributed to helping English teachers to provide more effective written feedback on writing instruction of junior high school.And it helped teachers to have a better understanding of students' responses and attitudes toward teacher's written feedback so that they can improve students' writing in a better way.